Red hat linux embedded linux and

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), the leader in open source solutions for Internet infrastructure, announced Tuesday that it is now taking orders for developer tools and services for the embedded Linux market. The Red Hat Embedded DevKit (EDK) begins shipping immediately and answers the demand for open source software and tools in the growing embedded space, which includes Internet appliances and handhelds.

The Red Hat EDK provides an integrated development environment (IDE) to deliver software developers everything needed to quickly and easily create embedded Linux applications on a wide spectrum of pervasive computing platforms. The targeted markets include manufacturers who are building Internet infrastructure appliances and consumer Internet appliances, as well as the traditional telecom, datacom, industrial and embedded enterprise markets.

The Red Hat Embedded DevKit is a completely open source software package and is sold via redhat.com with varying levels of services starting at $199.95.

"We are providing embedded Linux tools and services that can serve a broad base of embedded developers, regardless of their budget, and are scaling our services so that we can provide comprehensive support for the most demanding of customers," says Michael Tiemann, chief technical officer, Red Hat. "The Red Hat EDK offering leverages the success of our current service and support offerings for Linux, and is the next step in our vision to make Linux a pervasive computing standard."

Support Services A key advantage to the Red Hat Embedded DevKit is access to the premium support services that Red Hat has pioneered in the open source space. Red Hat Support customers receive assistance on the usage of the Embedded DevKit and response to questions about embedded Linux. In addition, customers are entitled to priority response on corrections to any EDK or kernel problems they submit. This ensures that customer projects stay on schedule.

For EDK, Red Hat offers two types of premium support: Incident support for small workgroups, and Platinum Support for larger development teams. Incident packages provide the customer with priority response on a fixed number of requests. Platinum packages provide priority response on an unlimited number of requests, but are based on the number of software developers using the EDK.

Powerful Open Source Offering for Linux Appliances The Red Hat Embedded DevKit includes the Source-Navigator IDE, with enhancements for embedded Linux development, along with the latest GNUPro compiler and debugger. The EDK offers Linux developers everything they need to create and deploy applications for embedded x86 or PowerPC target systems.

It includes: --The intuitive, Red Hat Source-Navigator IDE with automated make/build functionality

--Host development tools for testing code on the native platform using the Insight debugger

--GNUPro tools for x86 and PowerPC embedded development

--Basic Linux kernel functionality with configuration support.

The advantages of the Red Hat Embedded DevKit include:

--Simplification of Linux kernel configuration for an embedded system

--Easy download of the kernel with the customer application

--Rapid debugging of new application code or adapting pre-existing code to a new embedded target environment

--Standardized GUI environment regardless of target platform chosen which minimizes learning curve for new projects

--Faster time to market than competing solutions.

Pricing and Availability Red Hat EDK support x86 and PowerPC platforms and are available to order now at www.redhat.com/store. The EDK packages are priced from $199 to $599 US List and include various levels of installation support and priority FTP service. Premium Support packages start at $12,500, and may be ordered by contacting Red Hat Sales at 1-888 REDHAT1 x500.

Open Source Momentum International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that Linux was the fastest-growing server operating environment in 1998, growing more than 190 percent in that year alone and capturing more than 15.8 percent of the 4.4 million revenue shipment server operating systems market segment. Additionally, IDC states that Red Hat Linux is by far the most popular distribution, preferred by 68.7 percent of U.S. Linux users.

According to research firm NetCraft, Inc. (www.netcraft.com), 29 percent of all public Web servers run on Linux, making Linux the most popular operating system for public Web sites. Finally, IDC predicts that by 2002, there will be more than 55 million handheld and notebook-style information appliance devices and that by 2005, shipments of these appliances will exceed shipments of PCs.

Red Hat's numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-server and Linux-embedded applications has created open source support from many of the industry's leading software, hardware, and system manufacturers, including Brother, Cisco, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Nortel Networks, MIPS, Sony and Toshiba.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT) is the market leader in open source Internet infrastructure software, services and information, spanning powerful enterprise and Internet servers to next-generation devices and pervasive computing platforms. Along with its award-winning open source Red Hat Linux OS and embedded tools and software, Red Hat offers a full line of services, including telephone support, on-site consulting, developer training, certification programs and priority access updates, making Red Hat a leading resource for knowledgeable, innovative, mission-critical open source solutions.

Red Hat is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. To learn about Red Hat's perennially renowned products and services or its unfailing commitment to the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other public licenses, visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com.

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